3, 2, 1, Happy New Year! Now make some ridiculous goal to go to the gym consistently and give up two days in! But seriously, New Year’s resolutions have become laughable in society due to the combination of very high goals and motivation that only lasts a week or month into the new year. College especially is a time to continue growing and achieving goals, so how can students achieve their New Year’s resolutions without falling victim to the universal “I’ll start it up again next year?”
Evaluate the past year
Making new achievable goals without looking back at the past year and its priorities is difficult. If you have yet to have a desire to go to the gym and workout during the entire past year, you will most likely not be motivated to start going in the new year. But what ideas kept you up last year that you had grand ideas of making a reality: a specific hobby, learning a musical instrument, joining a club? By understanding the desires of last year, you will be in a better position to make achievable and enjoyable goals this year.
Pursue passion projects
The best way to stay motivated in pursuing goals is by chasing after your passions. You will be infinitely more motivated to do something you enjoy and want to succeed at than an arbitrary goal you feel obligated to do. Don’t like to go to the gym but love to dance? Maybe your goal could be attending different types of dance classes each week instead of lifting at the gym! Find your passions and shape goals around those!
Set goals within reason
One of the most challenging parts of resolutions is balancing setting high but unattainable goals. Your goal of learning to play a musical instrument in a month is not very achievable. So, when the progress is slow, people give up on their resolutions. Instead, set the goal of learning a favorite song within a month and then another song the next month. Setting smaller goals leading toward a larger goal is a realistic way to turn resolutions into realities.
Set clear timelines
In the busyness of college life, New Year’s resolutions can be swept under the rug when essays, job expectations, and friends take precedence. By taking the time to make a clear schedule of when you are starting to make habits of your resolutions, you will circumvent the disappointment of not planning enough time to achieve your resolutions. Setting a weekly time to pursue your goals and then setting monthly checkpoints can also let you see the progress made toward cementing a new habit.
Reevaluate goals throughout the year
The lie of the new year is that new goals can only be made in the first week of the year. If a New Year’s resolution is no longer something you are passionate about or you found something different to pursue, switch your goal! A goal that leads to another goal down the road is not wasted time. The goals people pursue change constantly as everyone grows and their interests change, so shift your goals as you see fit, but do not just abandon your previous ideas. Set new timelines for the new goal to continue this process of growing!
New Year’s resolutions may sound like a joke, but the new year is a fantastic time to start chasing after your passions! Start now, change halfway through the year, or start a completely new goal next November! You can find success and fulfillment in your resolutions as long as you truly love what you are trying to make into a habit.